Boston writers to honor Orioles' Buck Showalter

Sunday

Nov 25, 2012 at 6:00 AM

After leading the Baltimore Orioles to their first postseason berth since 1997, Buck Showalter has been voted as Major League Manager of the Year by the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Showalter will be among those honored at the chapter’s 74th annual dinner at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, at the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston.

After leading the Baltimore Orioles to their first postseason berth since 1997, Buck Showalter has been voted as Major League Manager of the Year by the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Showalter will be among those honored at the chapter’s 74th annual dinner at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, at the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston. In his third season with Baltimore, Showalter managed the Orioles to 24 more victories than they had in 2011. They finished two games behind the Yankees in the race for the AL East title. It was Baltimore’s best finish in the division since capturing first place in ’97. As well as the Orioles, Showalter has managed the Yankees, Diamondbacks and Rangers. He was named American League Manager of the Year with New York in 1994 and again with Texas in 2004. Tickets for the dinner are $175 each and are available by sending a check payable to The Sports Museum, in care of Rusty Sullivan, The Sports Museum, 100 Legends Way, Boston, MA 02114.

St. Louis Cardinals third baseman David Freese was OK after crashing his SUV while trying to avoid a deer. The accident happened Thursday afternoon in the St. Louis suburb of Wildwood. The 29-year-old, who was the 2011 World Series MVP, crashed his black 2011 Range Rover into a tree, missing the deer. Freese refused medical attention, and his SUV was towed away. Investigators say alcohol was not a factor in the accident.

Arkansas interim football coach John L. Smith will not return next season, the school’s athletic director said yesterday. Jeff Long said in a statement released by the university that he met with Smith yesterday morning, a day after the Razorbacks’ season-ending 20-13 loss to LSU, and told him the school “would be making a change in leadership within our program.” Smith was hired in April to replace the fired Bobby Petrino and signed to a 10-month contract. Long says that once a new coach is hired Smith will be reassigned as a consultant through the end of his deal on Feb. 23. Arkansas (4-8, 2-6 Southeastern Conference) began the season ranked in the top 10 but quickly fell out of the polls after a stunning loss to Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 8.

Laurence Bowers had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Phil Pressey had 11 points and eight assists, leading No. 13 Missouri to a 68-65 victory over VCU in the third-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas. Pressey gave the Tigers (5-1) the lead for good with a 3-pointer with 1:17 to play. That capped a run of five straight possessions in which the teams exchanged the lead. The Rams (3-3) turned the ball over with 57 seconds left. The Tigers called a timeout with 10 seconds left on the shot clock. Pressey took the inbounds, dribbled off a few seconds then made a move to the basket, where he ducked under a VCU player and hit a flip shot as the shot clock hit zero.

Chris Crawford and Joe Jackson, two of Memphis’ better players who had been struggling, scored 18 and 15 points, respectively, as the 19th-ranked Tigers avoided losing all three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis, beating Northern Iowa, 52-47. Memphis (3-2) was one of four ranked teams in the regular-season tournament, but it was the only one not to reach the semifinals.

Lewis Hamilton won the pole position for the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, while Formula One leader Sebastian Vettel will start fourth and title challenger Fernando Alonso seventh. Hamilton set a lap of 1 minute, 12.458 seconds with his McLaren at Interlagos, just .055 in front of teammate Jenson Button. Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber will start third after a lap of 1:12.581, with Vettel behind him following a run of 1:12.760. Vettel needs to finish fourth or better today to become F1’s youngest three-time champion at age 25.